


Shores of Your Subconscious

by Forthediehards



Series: Dream within a Dream [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: AU, Action/Adventure, Also there probably won't be a ton of romance anyway, Alternate Universe, Angst, Annie is the mark, Armin is the point man and also the architect, Drama, Eren is an extractor, Jean is a forger, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, THIS PIECE OF WORK IS NOT PART OF MY SERIES CANON, There will be other INCEPTION AUs that I'll be adding to this series but no major characters die, This is an INCEPTION AU, This particular installment doesn't really showcase any romance, This probably won't make a lot of sense unless you've seen INCEPTION, This was just a test run of this AU so this is technically non-canonical, accidental suicide, this work is part of a series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-06
Updated: 2015-06-06
Packaged: 2018-04-03 04:03:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4085941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forthediehards/pseuds/Forthediehards
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an unfortunate chain of events during a very important job, Armin finds himself trapped in limbo. However, he thinks limbo has become his reality. He's convinced that Eren is dead and the job was a failure. Jean comes into limbo to try and save him. (INCEPTION AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shores of Your Subconscious

“It was supposed to be beautiful.” 

“It is beautiful,” Jean counters, taking a seat down in the warm sand next to Armin. The smaller boy looks far away, like his body and soul are disconnected and thousands of miles apart from each other. His eyes are glazed over as he stares ahead at the never-ending ocean and he doesn’t even flinch as the cool water rushes past his waist. “Just like you   
described it would be.”

“But it’s not, don’t you see?” Armin says slowly, his voice a disheartened monotone that makes Jean’s stomach flop and churn. He doesn’t sound like Armin at all and it’s then that Jean realizes a horrible fact – Armin has been down here in limbo for far longer than him and Eren had suspected. 

“No, Armin, it looks beautiful to me.”

Armin turns his head, then, and it’s a jerky movement that almost doesn’t look human. His eyes snap to meet Jean’s gaze and to his surprise, Armin is glaring at him. His eyes widen just a bit and he scoots himself over in the wet sand, undoubtedly smearing granules all over the bottom of his (very) expensive tux.

“But Eren isn’t here. Eren is dead.” 

Jean is honestly taken back by that, and his shock is all too obvious as he swallows thickly and furrows his eyebrows at the blond. Just how long had Armin been left down here, under the impression that Eren was dead?

“Eren is dead, Jean, and all I see every day is this same ocean. Nothing ever changes.”

Jean’s head is spinning and his gut immediately fills with icy cold guilt. Eren had, in fact, been shot in the head in the first layer of the dream, but because he wasn’t as heavily sedated, he had just woken up as usual. Jean had woken up only minutes after Eren, but both of them were horrified when they couldn’t shake Armin awake. Eren had attempted to reach Armin once or twice before Jean came here, but every time he had been overwhelmingly unsuccessful. Armin had thrown a fit and claimed him to be dead, and then physically killed Eren himself in a fit of rage.

“Eren isn’t dead, I can promise you that.” Jean says after a few moments, reaching over and grabbing hold of Armin’s hand. “This is a dream, Armin. Nothing here is real. Eren died in the first layer and he woke up. He’s waiting for you.” 

Armin jerks his hand out of Jean’s grip and shoots the older boy a look so heartbroken and melancholy that Jean could almost throw up. This level of emotion wasn’t uncommon for Armin, but it was obvious that the time he’s spent down here in limbo has eaten away at his brain.

“Why would you lie to me like that? Aren’t you supposed to be my best friend?”

“Armin – you’re not listening to me.” Jean’s voice gets rough, and immediately he has to remind himself to calm down. He’s dealing with someone who is completely unaware of himself, his surroundings, and the fact that he’s stuck in a dream. For all intents and purposes, he’s not really Armin at all. “The three of us were on a job, remember? We were hired to go inside a woman’s dreams – Annie Leonhart. She has really delicate information about the Titan Initiative. Does that ring a bell?” 

Armin looks terrified, and Jean reaches forward to touch him again, comfort him in some way. He places his hand on Armin’s shoulder, and this time the smaller blond doesn’t pull away.

“Annie…” Armin muses, finding the name to be somewhat familiar. He can picture a face, blonde hair and tired eyes. She had been captured and taken in for questioning, but had refused to say a single word no matter what methods they tried to use on her.

Him, Jean, and Eren had been called in to extract. They were dream sharers – Armin the pointman and architect, Jean the forger, and Eren the extractor. This was familiar to him.  
When the recognition dawns on Armin’s face, Jean finds himself feeling perhaps a bit too hopeful. He reaches to his belt and slides a pistol out of it’s holster, slowly offering it   
over to Armin.

“It’s time to wake up, Armin. Come back to us.”

But it’s really Jean who’s the fool, Armin thinks, because that job had been taken care of over five years ago. Ten, even. Eren had died long after the fact – he had been shot in the head by an angry mark on another job and Armin hadn’t seen him since. He ran away to this beach where he now spends his days staring out into the horizon like it’s all that’s left of the world.

“I will die, Jean. Is that what you want?” He asks carefully, but his fingers find themselves wrapping around the gun without hesitation. “Maybe it would be better than here…”

“You won’t die, Armin. You’ll wake up and Eren will be there waiting. It’s time to go.”

A single tear runs down Armin’s cheek and falls against the sand, mixing in with the ocean water and drifting far off into the sea. Dying wouldn’t be so bad, he thinks, as long as it gets him away from here.

“You’ll be coming to?” he asks Jean, eyes downcast and blank as he raises the gun to his own temple. Jean makes a noise in agreement. 

“Yes, I’ll be coming too. Wake up now, Armin.”

Jean knows Armin doesn’t believe him, and somehow that makes the situation even more heart wrenching. Armin has lost his will to live, so much so that he’s willing to put a bullet into his brain without even a second thought.

“I’ll see you in hell, Jean.”

The sound of the gun is deafening in Jean’s ears, and the warm blood that splatters across his cheeks stings like salt on an open wound.

“Come back to us, Armin.”

~~

Armin wakes up only moments before Jean. He blinks the light from his eyes and sits up in shock, bringing a hand up to his chest to see if he can still feel his own heartbeat.   
It’s a rapid pace, but it’s beating strong and sure, and he’s most certainly not dead. There’s a commotion to his left, a flash of colors and someone calling out his name with a tone so genuinely worried it makes his chest flutter. 

It takes a few seconds longer than it should for him to realize that it’s Eren.

“Armin! Holy shit, I can’t believe Jean actually did it. Thank god you’re back!” Eren cries, looping his arms around Armin’s neck and clinging to him tightly. Armin stumbles back in shock, his brain working to catch up with everything and he finds himself wrapping his arms around Eren simply due to habit. He doesn’t understand. Eren was dead.

Then there’s a gasp to his right, and he sees Jean shoot up from his own chair, eyes wide and frantic as he looks around the room with purpose. He’s looking for one thing and   
one thing only, and that’s Armin.

Relief floods through him when he finally catches sight of the blond, and he chuckles breathlessly as he runs a hand through his hair. “You made it. I didn’t think you were gonna make it.”

All Armin can do is gawk at them both. Eren is a warm presence against him, with a loudly beating heart and a working pair of lungs. He’s very much alive and not sprawled out across the floor with a bullet in his brain.

“B-but I don’t understand.”

Eren’s grip gets a bit softer when he hears Armin’s words, and he pulls back a little bit to meet the blond’s gaze. When Armin meets Eren’s eyes, they’re the color of the ocean at sunset and a sick feeling settles into his stomach. All of a sudden he can smell salt in the air and feel the sand beneath his fingers.

But he’s not there. He’s back in reality with Eren and Jean – and it is reality, right?

“You were stuck in limbo. It was only a half hour here for us but it was probably years and years for you. Just try and take it easy, okay? I know it’s going to be hard to get used to the real world again.” Eren explains, taking a seat at the edge of Armin’s bed. Next to them, Jean is working on disconnecting the PASIV device and assembling it all back into its case.

“This is reality?” Armin wonders out loud, a bit skeptical now because Eren was dead. He does remember Jean coming to talk to him, and he remembers shooting himself in the head. Him and Jean woke up next to each other and that has to count for something, right?

“Check your totem if you need to. I promise you’re in reality now. You’re safe.”

Armin’s eyes widen at Eren’s words and immediately his hands fly to his pockets to grab at his loaded dice. They’re both still there, and he quickly rolls them across the nightstand beside him to see if they land correctly.

They do.

“Oh my god.” 

Eren catches Armin when the smaller boy falls forward, and wraps his arms around him when he begins to cry. Jean steps over as well, holding both of them in his arms as he   
gives Armin’s back a gentle pat.

“You’re back, Armin.” Jean says, and Eren chokes on his own sob as he nods in agreement. 

“You’re home.” 

~~

When Armin falls asleep that night, he dreams of an ocean that expands for miles. Jean is there too, at his side as they gaze across the water into the unknown. “Wake up, Armin.”   
He says firmly, and the world around them begins to crumble away until nothing is left but darkness and a pair of sad, determined eyes.

“Come home.” 

The bullet hits his brain and he feels it only for a moment. There’s the sound of muffled cries surrounding him in the darkness, calling to him desperately and begging him to stay alive.

But he never does open his eyes again after that. 

Because now… now he’s home.

**Author's Note:**

> Friendly reminder that THIS IS A NON-CANONICAL HAPPENING IN MY INCEPTION SERIES. This was a test run for this AU to see if people responded to it well enough to keep it going. Armin does not die in my Inception Canon. Stay tuned for more pieces to be added to the collection soon! I hope you guys enjoyed!


End file.
